Visions of involvement

This year’s Isaiah Thomas Award honoree is Dr. Abraham W. Haddad, a periodontist with a passion for community service. Since the early 1970s, his wise influence has been felt on a range of projects.

Dr. Haddad, 70, of Worcester, had a hand in the creation of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, and leads the economic development catalyst as its chairman. His time also goes to the Greater Worcester Community Foundation, the Worcester County Music Association, the Worcester Economic Club, the Worcester Art Museum, the American Heart Association, various professional organizations and local efforts to provide dental care for the needy.

Further, Dr. Haddad doesn’t believe in being a one-man show. He gently persuades others to join causes. The collaborative spirit he models means that his contribution of 15,000 hours of community service since 1971 — and counting — only begins to portray his local influence.

Maurice J. Boisvert of Shrewsbury is this year’s Public Service award recipient.

Thousands of troubled youths have been put on firmer footing because of his establishment of Youth Opportunities Upheld Inc. in 1971. Among other services, the agency helps rehabilitate young people whose missteps have led them to Worcester Juvenile Court.

The reverberations of his long tenure as chief executive of YOU Inc. are incalculable. This is vital work that takes sensitivity, constancy and determination, and it strengthens the whole community. Mr. Boisvert, 69, who retired last fall, remains a teacher and consultant, and to some families a hero.

This year’s Young Leader Award goes to Amy R. Mosher.

Ms. Mosher, 34, strategy and innovation leader for Workforce Central, is an energetic example of what she looks for in the job seekers she serves: One who is passionate about her work and ideally suited to it.

One of her roles is running workshops — free of sugarcoating — for budding entrepreneurs at Workforce Central, an employment center operated by Worcester and the state. A former AmeriCorps volunteer in Main South who earned a master’s degree in community development at Clark University, she is strong in science and counts green energy, and green careers, among her enthusiasms. The Worcester resident has also “walked the walk” of the unemployed and underemployed; at one point, she held seven part-time jobs. Now, she imparts skills and belief to those in shoes like that.

The Cultural Enrichment award honors Alternatives Unlimited Inc., a nonprofit that provides residential and vocational services for people with psychiatric and developmental disabilities.

Dennis H. Rice, executive director, who will represent Alternatives at tomorrow’s ceremony, was part of the vanguard of a societal shift that has profoundly changed lives: The mission to build a fully inclusive community.

Mr. Rice co-founded Alternatives 37 years ago and discovered that getting people out of institutions was only a first step. True integration means sharing enjoyable experiences with others. A lovely expression of that thought is at the renovated Whitin Mill complex in Whitinsville, where a performance theater, plaza, and art gallery grace a downtown corner that also houses Alternatives’ offices and clients.

Anna N. Klouda of Lancaster, a graduate of Nashoba Regional High School in Bolton, will receive the Academic Achievement award, which goes to the winner of an annual essay contest open to Telegram & Gazette Student Achievers. The 18-year-old is a freshman at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she is in the Commonwealth Honors College with aspirations to be a doctor or nurse practitioner.

To the essay theme of “The Election of 2012: Is America at a Crossroads?” she took a personal approach, saying there are always challenges and every one of us can help every day. She told her young colleagues that “we must realize that we can never stop learning, never close our minds to others, and never think that we have all the answers.”

The Visions winners will be honored tomorrow at Mechanics Hall, 321 Main St. U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern will be the keynote speaker. The program is open to the public. Doors open at 4 p.m.

These are an inspiring five people, and we congratulate and thank them.